"That was pretty anticlimactic."

That’s the first thought I had upon reading and verifying the veracity of the intel I received.

There was a peculiar reason that I and Nia remained on the western shore of the lake, where only commoners lived.

Before leaving Beaufort, I was warned about the peculiar fourteen we were to be after next.

From what I was told, Karen Caelus, Archbishop in charge of the Authority of Sora, Daughter of the Mountain, was known far and wide across the continent for the tight grasp she held upon the Duchy she, as Vassal of the Church, was known to rule over. In the few days I remained in this city, I got to witness some of these grasps she held onto the city, despite the little presence they were exuding.

Aside from that, there was information circulating that a large influx of clergy members had recently been observed within the duchy due to local church demand. And, while the phenomenon has been present since the disasters, this influx has been especially noticeable since a few weeks ago, roughly when my great-grandfather returned to the continent.

To be honest, though I knew it was only the commoner district, I was fairly surprised by the lack of guards across cities, since I was told that the Archbishop had eyes and ears everywhere, so a part of me was expecting the city to be heavily guarded, but then I realized that by eyes and ears it was meant to refer to girls like Junhua who served as a bridge between her and the people she ruled over. The fact that Junhua possessed one of those things, despite being a commoner, made me understand that fact.

I was warned to remain stealthy, which I believe I did, by simply not stepping onto the eastern shores where the nobles of Lilith lived, for from what I knew, our presence would be immediately noticed if we were to go there, and that was far from being what we wanted, so to the western shores we remained.

Of course, I had nothing to fear from the Archbishop, but I was not careless enough to underestimate the lengths to which one can go to survive. I would like to avoid having to cause another Night Ecarlate, so I chose to proceed patiently through the whole process, which is why, upon receiving intel concerning where to find the Archbishop, I couldn’t help but wonder if there wasn't a mistake somewhere. But having monitored that place for more than a few days, I was certain this presence was hers.

"Anticlimactic." There was no other way to describe how easy it turned out to be for us to find a lead to reach the Archbishop.

***

Waiting inside the carriage, Nia opened the door for our approaching guest.

"Please get in, Prioress Sarah," Nia said.

Despite being surprised to see us, in what was meant to be her carriage, the person still boarded in. She stared at me with an indecipherable expression as she took a seat across from me.

"Good evening. Long time no see, Prioress Sarah, or maybe I should call you, Archbishop in Charge of the Authority of Sora, Daughter of the Mountain, Karen Caelus. " I greeted.

"Under this appearance, I go by the name Sarah." The person sitting across from Nia and I responded.

"I see... I understand. Then I hope you were able to properly give your farewells to the children and the others. "

"I have..."

"I see."

Prioress.

Just like the Maiden order was, the Rank of Prioress was a rank that was introduced by the Local Church under the Archbishop Caelus's supervision. Their role was to administrate the dozens of orphanages that were taken care of by the Church.

Orphanages were something the Duchy of Lilith was very well-known for, aside from its lakes and its wealth. Dozens of them were littered across the Duchy. Well, to be exact, they were the Archbishop Caelus’, who was known for being the Archbishop of the Authority of Sora, the Mother of Mountains, the Apostle of Motherhood.

Not long ago, I knew little to nothing about that Archbishop, but I assumed his motherly and child-loving behavior was part of some sort of charade into which people, mostly commoners and orphans like Junhua, fell to eventually see the Archbishop as a being of absolute love and generosity, which was an understandable point of view based on how I saw this "Prioress Sarah" taking care of the children for the few days we had been observing her.

I looked across at the person sitting across from me and saw a woman with the appearance of a woman, perhaps 35 or 40 years old at most, with light auburn hair, all of which had nothing to do with the appearance I remembered from that night of this particular Archbishop.

For a brief moment, the woman focused solely on me, but then her gaze shifted to Nia, and she said, "So it was you."

"You know me?" Nia asked.

"I’ve heard of you from a comrade of mine and, lately, from one of my maidens." She explained.

Junhua.

"As I thought, you were aware of my presence in the Duchy, weren’t you?"

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

She nodded.

And here I thought I was discreet enough by simply not meddling with the nobility.

"I’ve heard a lot from you from Ainsley, and, from Junhua, heard of your interest in our Dra-"

"-I believe you know what we are here for, Sister Sarah," I interrupted.

"Yes, I do. May I ask, you knew about me. Why didn’t you go straight to the Archbishop instead of me? " She asked with a calm voice, and after a while, ultimately asked, "Why did you wait?"

"To answer your questions, whether I went to the Archbishop or didn’t, the result would’ve been the same, so I chose to approach you instead. As to why I waited, I wanted to see you finish bidding your final farewell to the children. I believe they at least deserved that."

I had learned that a few days ago, roughly not so long after I arrived, they were dismantled from their positions in their respective orphanages to be summoned back to the Archbishop. Out of all the prioresses in the Duchy, Prioress Sarah was the last of her order to leave her orphanage.

"I see,... I must thank you two then." She said, as she threw a last glance from the carriage windows to the orphanage.

Though I heard no sarcasm in her voice, I could not tell if the thanks were genuine or just a facade. "Well, Sister Sarah, I believe you know what we are here for. Please take us to her. "

With a serene voice, she said, "I understand."

She tapped her foot twice and called out to the coachmen, "To the dock of the Estern Shore." She ordered.

***

The eastern shore, the place where the nobles live.

It was already very late at night when we, through the carriage, stepped onto the equivalent of the Beaumont’s Noble district for Lilith for the first time. And though there was no sun nor moon, the entire city was shining bright with opulence.

If I had deemed the Western shore to be a good-looking and good-living city, the Eastern Shore was on a whole new level.

In stark contrast to how distinct the noble districts and the outer quartier were in Beaumont, the eastern and western shores here in Lilith, which were separated by kilometers, felt the disparity more acutely than ever.

On the eastern shore, I had the impression of being back in Beaumont; there was no trace of the mostly-wooden and colored construction there was on the western counterpart. Like a spectral city, each structure had a white castle-like appearance, which shone bright even with the absence of the moon.

If I were to make a guess, each one of these towering buildings, including the paving, were made of the same material that Shawn built his own house with, if I were to assume that this Crater-Gold construction was done in response to the calamities. No wonder it took so much time for Shawn to receive his shipment.

From the carriage, I beheld a true display of wealth, as ridiculous as it was.

After trotting for a while across the eastern shore, our carriage finally reached the destination Sister Sarah ordered the coachman to take us to, the "Eastern Shore’s Dock."

So, without a single moment of transition, we boarded the boat and headed for our next destination, which, after steering into the lake for several minutes, soon came into view.

There in the middle of the lake was an isle, which I knew was the one the fisherman and I that day talked about.

Soon, we arrived at the aforementioned isle, which the man swore he would never approach. However, our ship sailed into a dock built for that purpose on the isle today; it appears to me from how the man steering the boat was well-versed in sailing on this land and that the isle was, in fact, frequently visited, contrary to the legend that has been told.

Upon setting foot on the land, the first thing Sister Sarah did was to dismiss the one who took us here. She, upon tossing the man a coin purse, requested him to leave and to not return under any circumstance. Though the man was confused by the order, he complied quite easily and took his leave.

Soon after, left alone, the three of us found ourselves climbing up stairs leading to what from afar looked like a large shrine.

Having reached the top of the stairs, a large door awaited for us,

Only then did Sister Sarah comment, after being silent so far, "Before I open this door, can I ask a question?" she said.

I remained silent but she seemed to have taken my silence for a yes.

"Why didn’t the magic item used to track the faceless one, no longer react to you?"

I did not give her the pleasure of giving her the answer.

The answer was rather simple.

The fact that she dared to ask me that question after all these years proved to me that she still didn't seem to understand why the church wanted me dead. Their magical items were not created to purposely track me or my mana signature. I had never crossed paths with the church before that night, so they had nothing to track me with, which means that what ultimately led them to me was something else. Its presence was what it truly tracked. It was because I preyed on "it" that I became the Church's Faceless One. The deeper motives beyond the most shallow ones are still unclear to me, but I can roughly guess why I was considered a threat to be eliminated at sight and that that task was given to the archbishops and holy paladins personally.

Understanding that she would have no answer, she let out a chuckle and commented, "I must say, I was not expecting our meeting to be like this."

"How did you expect it then?"

"... From what I heard from Ainsley, Everything, but not like this."

"I do not know what you’ve been told about me, but none of you know anything about me."

I heard her let out a sarcastical-sounding chuckle before pushing the door open, and she then made her way inside, followed by us.

Even with the door open, the room was dim. There was nothing to see here, only the sound of footsteps and heartbeats. It was only further away, shining brightly under a moonlight-like light projecting from the ceiling, that a brightly clear spot appeared.

"Indeed, we knew and knew nothing of you… and again…"

As we were following her up close, we heard a second voice speaking in parallel with Sister Sarah,

"Indeed, we knew and knew nothing of you…and again we are making the same mistake. "

The room chandelier and lamp wall lit up, making the room clear and revealing the presence of; around us, each seated on their respective seat, of several dozens of puppets; and, in front of us, below the moonlight-like light in the middle of the room, of the fourth person, or to be exact, the third person to whom the voice belonged.

She was, there, sitting on a chair,

"This is our first time meeting personally. Allow me to properly introduce myself. Sora, Daughter of the Mountain, Karen of the Caelus Great Family, ArchBishop of the Authority of Sora. The true and only one. "

The person said with a voice that didn’t sound like the one she had while being Sara’s.

She was there, sitting on a chair next to a much larger, at least compared to her, puppet, whose features could only be described with the words "human-like", for that puppet,unlike her, had kept a semblance of human likeness facial and appearance-wise.

The puppet appearance fitted exactly the appearance I had in memory of Karen Kaelus.

And, despite the fact that the woman introduced herself as the ArchBishop of the Sora Daughter of the Mountain and that she may have earned that title... As someone born under the Authority of Djeem the Accursed, in my short life, I have never seen someone better fitted to be born under the Authority of Djeem the Accursed than the woman seated in front of me.